中文
HOME
HOME / LATEST NEWS / Content

Grade 7: Lecture on a Very Special Musical

May 2, 2017

Grade 7: Lecture on a Very Special Musical

During CAS class on Thursday, April 20th, all the 7th graders gathered in the Primary School auditorium to listen to a lecture about a musical called Jews in Shanghai. This lecture was quite special and different from other ones as it was given by a 7th grade student’s dad, Mr. Xu. This was the first lecture ever given by a parent. Mr. Xu is the director of the musical, Jews in Shanghai, which was recently performed in various theaters around the world. Mr. Xu talked about the production of the musical and the huge success it received.

Jews in Shanghai is a musical about how Jewish refugees came to Shanghai and slowly settled down with the help of Shanghai citizens. Mr. Xu told us about the long and complicated preparations before the musical. The musical’s planning team had to travel to many places to look for true stories that could be turned into scripts, to learn about the history of Jewish refugees in Shanghai, and to find suitable actors. To make this play more realistic, the actors acting the Jewish refugees all came from Israel, so Mr. Xu and his team had to travel to Israel to look for actors and actresses. Mr. Xu then told students about making the costumes in the play which came right after finding the right actors. There were at first about one thousand rough drafts of costumes, the planning team along with an experienced and famous fashion designer went through all the drafts of costumes and took a long time to finally decide the final costumes. Every single costume was complicated and detailed from the hairstyle of the actor or actress to a scarf or glove. Mr. Xu showed us videos about how the musical was a huge success after it came out in 2015. It was not only performed in China but was also invited to Broadway to perform in front of foreign audiences. Jews in Shanghai proved that Chinese musicals could stand among the best in the world.

Students thoroughly understood the preparations needed for a musical and the hardships needed to be overcome behind the scenes. Many students hoped to learn more about musicals and wished that Mr. Xu could come and give another lecture again.

(Written by Amy Wang Picture by Laura)